Welt-moistening machine



P. E. BARBOUR AND H. LYON. WELT MOISTENING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 20, I920. 1,416,773, Patented May 23, 1922.

\J/arr and HARRY LYON, citizens. o

u 1 man STATESgPATENT .o FicE.

E. Ramona ANDHZARBY LYON; or BROCKTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGN' mg nnocx'ron RAND COMPANY, a man comosnn or JOHN A. BARIBOUR AND EY' E. HARBOUR, BOTH OF BROCKTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

. wmir-morsrmime MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented M 23 1922 Application filed November. 20, 1920. Serial No. 425,404.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that we, Pr. Y ErBARBpUR the United States, residing at Brockton, in the county of Plymouth and State of Massachusetts, haveinvented new and useful Improvements in Welt-Moistening Machines, of which the following is a specification.

n-the manufacture of 'welted shoes, the welting must be tempered, that is moistened, sufficiently to be flexible and penetrable by the awl and needle of the sewing machine by which it is stitchedto the shoe. It 1s not necessary, however, that more of .the

welting than the edge which is turned up and through which the stitches of the inseam .pass should be tempered; while for many reasons well understood 1n the art it is highly desirable that the Welt should not be wet through its whole width. It is also highly objectionable for the weltlng to be either too wet or too dry when applied to the shoe, but the exactly correct degree of tempering is a difficult condition to attain and is seldom fully attained in commercial practice. Our object is to provide for the aid of shoemak'ers a machine for tempering welting by which so much of the welting as needs to be tempered, and no-more, may be moistened to the required degree; and a machine which also may be used in such proximity to the inseaming machine (the machine by which the welt is attached to the shoe with the sewingof the inseam) that the welting is tempered as it-is fed tothe inseaming machine, and passes through that machine in the same conditionof temper in which it leaves the tempering machine. In pursuance of this object we have produced a machine or apparatus for tempering welting of which a successfully operative embodiment is illustrated in the drawings herewith furnished and is described in the following specification.

Our invention conslsts in such machmeand the essential princlples thereof 1n whatever equlvalent form such principles may be embodied.

Figure l of said drawings shows said I113.- chine in plan View. I

' Figure 2 is a side elevationof the moistening wheel and also shows part of the tank and the preliminary welt guide in section.

Figure 3 is a cross section of the moistening wheel taken on line 3-3 of Figure 2.

Figure fl'isan elevation of one of the parts of the moistening wheel detached, representmg the lnner face of said art.

F igures 5 and 6 are sectional views of the parts of the moistening wheel separated from one another, and representing half of each of said parts."

Flgure 7 is an enlarged view of a fragment of that part of the moistening wheel wh ch is shown in Figure 4:.

Figure 8 is a sectional view on line 88 of Figure 7.

Figure 9 is an inner face view of that part of the moistening wheel which is shown in Flgure 6.

Figure 10 is a view similar to Figure 3 shlpwing a modified form of moistening w ee Figure 11 shows a fragment of welting such as may be moistened with the use of this machine.

The same reference characters indicate the same parts mall the figures. t

The main parts of the machine comprise a tank 1 in which the moistening liquid, usually water, is contained, a moistening wheel 2, a shaft 3, and a guide 4 to locate the welting in the plane of the moistening wheel as it passes thereto in being drawn from r the hank or reel. The tank is portable and is adapted to be placed on a bench or shelf or an convenient support near an inseam stitchlng machine whereby the welting may be drawn from the moistener to the stitching machine. As a convenient means for supporting the shaft, the opposite walls of the tank are provided with sockets 5 in which the ends of the shaft may be detachably held. These sockets may bemformed in the tank walls, or otherwise made and attached thereto. Preferably the moistening wheel is separate from the shaft and rotatably mounted thereon by means of ball bearings 6, 7, as' shown in Figure 3, because thereby the maxmetal 8 which is securedto the edge of the tank and one end of which properly cut and bent to leave a narrow slot, closed at the 'top end, ofthe proper dimensionsto guide groove by openings "11. In the form of wheel shown in Figures 1, 2, and 3 buckets are provided on oneside only, while in the form shown in Figure 10 there are two sets of buckets, 10- and 12, located'on the opposite outer faces of the wheel. The. inner part of the groove 9, corresponding in depth to the width of that part of the welting upon which the moistening liquid is to be applied, is of such a width as to bear against the opposite surfaces of the welting, thereby compelling contact between the welting and that wall of the groove through which .the openings 11 from the buckets pass. The outer part of the groove is widened with flaring sides in order to guide the edge of the welting into the-narrow inner part and. to avoid making contact with the weltin outside of the zone to be moistened. In igure 11, which represents a fragment 13 of welting, the'line a-b ll'ldlcates the approximate limit of the moistened zone from the edge 14 of the welting. The depth of the narrow part of the roove is therefore approximately e ual to t e width of that part of the welt strip from the edge 14 thereof to'the line a-b and the widened flaring part begins at that distance from the groove bottom.

To insure contactbetween the welt strip and the walls of the narrow groove portion and at the same time accommodate welting of different thicknesses, those parts of the wheel which provide the boundaries of the groove are made separable one from the other and pressed toward one another with .yielding force. It is sufficient for this purpose-if a peripheral annulus ,coextensive in width with the depth of the groove is made thus movable with respect to the balance of the wheel, but preferably the wheel is made of two parts or disks 15 and 16 as shown in the drawings, having hubs 17 and 18, respectively, adapted to be slipped endwise on and off from the shaft, the disks being placed face to face and their peripheral parts furnishing the walls or flanges of the groove.

One of the disks as 16, is fitted with a number of symmetrically spaced pins 19 which pass through holes in the other'disk and surroundin which are placed helical springs 20, reacting against abutment nuts threaded on the pins, and pressing against the disk 15. The springs 20 constitute an operative embodiment of means for yieldingly urging the opposite walls of the welt strip-receiving groove toward one another and of permittmg such walls to separate. in receiving the welting. The particular mountin of' the springs, that is, the mounting by w ich the reaction of the springs is borne directly by one art of the wheel and their pressure is applied directly against the other part of the wheel has an advantage over other modes of urgin the walls of the groove toward one anot er which .might be used, in

that it accomplishes the desired object without opposing any resistance whatever to the rotation of the wheel It is important that the moistening device vshould exert the least possible drag upon the' welting, since too great drag would be liable to cause injury to the welting by the feed mechanism of the inseam stitching machine, and to prevent correct operation of the machine by springing the feeding awl or the needle; and our mode of mounting and arranging the springs enables the composite wheel to be made to run as freely as can1be done with the use of liall bearings and the absence of frictional rag. a

One of the disks has a shoulder, formed by a concentric rib 22, which enters an annular recess 23 in the. face of the other disk, to formthe bottom of the moistening groove or channel 9. The recess 23 is wider than the rib 2 2 and its outer wall has'a larger diameter than the outer surface of the rib 22, as is shown in Figure 3 and more clearly indicated in Figure 5. Thereby an open space is left between the shoulder which forms the bottom of the welt strip-' receiving channel and the outer, wall of the recess 23. The disk in which recess 23 is formed is the one which carries the buckets, that is, disk 15, and the openings 11 from the buckets pass through that diskoutside of the outer wall of said recess. The orifices of these openings in the inner face of said disk are widened as shown in Figures 4, 7 and 8 to make wide shallow pockets 24 divided off from one another by partitions 25 which are formed .by the material of the disk running out to the plane of the receiving channel Wall. These characteristics are important in securing the desired effects of rapid moistening of the welting without too great wetting and without loss of the water from the buckets through the openings 11 before being applied to'the welting.

As will beseen from Figure 2, the welting passes from the side of the tank over the wheel and thence to the place of use. Water or other moistening liquid fills the tank to a height, atthe highest not much above the broken line 0 of Figure 2, and preferably somewhat below the level so 'indicated. As the wheel is revolved by the traveling welt for a long enough time to secure the required strip, the buckets pick up water in an amount which is determined by their size and shape. As the buckets are lifted and tipped backward their content 'of water flows to holes 11, but not through them, being held back by capillary force, until reaching the path of the welt strip. I But when the welt strip passes across the pockets 24 (or otherwise widened orifices of the holes 11), and comes;

tion of the buckets through these holes that the wall of the welt channel 9 through which the buckets open is separated from contact with the rib 22 which forms the bottom of the welt channel, by the excess width of the annular recess 23. It hasbeen found in the operation of a device otherwise substantially like that just described, but having the side of the welt channel next to the buckets, and

its bottom meeting together, that the water will run along the bottom of,the channel and out of the buckets without either coming in contact with as great a width of the welting as is desired, or remaining in contactwith it degree of moistening. By providing an annular space at the side of the channel between the bottom thereofand the water passages, the water does not run away, but is retained in contact with the welt strip as long as the welting travels with the bucket. The wideningof the hole orifices into the pockets 24 separated only by narrow partitions, produces the same effect as though the'welting were brought in contact with a ribbon of water wide enough to moisteh so much of the welting as needs to be'moistened. The substantial' continuity of the bodies of water in the adjacent pockets makes the moistening of the welt substantially continuous throughout the zone which comes in contact with the water. The widening of the channel between that zone of the disk through which the holes 11 open and the periphery of the wheel prevents spreading of the moistened zone to a width greater than desiredby preventing contact of the outer part of the welt strip with those walls.

bottom of one and the edge of the next one a wide opening 26 is left adjacent to the The lateral walls of the buckets are so shaped that between the We have found that when the holes 11 are as large as three-sixt'eenths of an inch in diameter the action of capillarity with respect to such holes will take place as described; and we have found that in order to get sufficient moistening during the short are of contact which is possible between the welt strip and the wheel, these holesshould be made as large as they can be made without causing the premature escape of the water through them.

'The wheel which we have shown in F igures 1 to 5 and havethusdescribed in detail has'buckets on one side only and therefore applies water only to the corresponding side of the welt strip. When it is desired to apply the water at both sides simultaneously, a duplicate set of buckets, as shown at 12 in Figure 10, may be provided on the outer face of the disk 16 ;'and the holes from such buckets and the orifices of such holes may be made according to the same principles as already described. The rib 22 forming the bottom of the welt channel may be formed on either disk; but when the same disk carries a series-of buckets,'a recess adjacent to the rib should be made as shown at 27 in Figure 10.

It will be appreciated that by. providing a wheel for applying the moistening fluid to the welt strip, we have made it possible to produce a very compact moistening ma-- chine which can be placed upon some part of an inseam stitching machine, or in such proximity to such a machine that the welting may be drawn over the moistener to it without occupying valuable space. By furnishing the means hereinbefore particularly described for controlling-and taking advantage of the action of capillary force, we have made it possible to apply a wheel small in diameter and other dimensions to the purpose set forth.

A useful feature of the invention is that no exact'regulation of the liquid level in the tank is necessary, for so long as the lowermost buckets on the wheel dip into the water, the moistening operation will be carried out as described. Being properly designed to that end, the buckets will pick up enough water for tempering whether they are deeply, or only slightly, submerged. Constant replenishment of the water and regulation to maintain its height at an exact level is therefore unnecessary, but enough water may be initially placed in the tank to moisten all welting passed over the wheel during an entire working day, provided-only the tank is made with so large an area that the amount of water used in the course of a day will not bring the level below the entrance points of the lowest buckets of the wheel.

Another useful feature, of even greater value, is the fact that the feeding or drawwhenever the attachment of a welt to a shoe has been completed, the feeding of the strip must be stopped while the operator cuts off the attached welt and changes the shoe. While the welt strip is standing still in such circumstances it will absorb all the water in the pockets with which it is in contact, but after the water. in the buckets has drained down to the level of the communieating holes, no more water will flow, whereby excessive wetting of the welt is avoided. But when the feed is resumed, the wheel is turned and the partially emptied buckets are further tilted, with lowering of their outlet holes with respect to the levels of the water in the buckets, whereby the water again flows to the welt without delay after the resumption offeeding and no parts of the strip are left unmoistened.

Nothin in the way of limitation is to be assumed from the reference in the foregoing description to water as the moistening fluid. The invention consists in a machine having scribed and hereinafter pointed out in the claims, regardless of what specific liquid may be used for moistening by the agency of the machine.

What we claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A welt moistening machine comprising a wheel having a channel in its periphery adapted to receive a welt strip edgewise, and means for so mounting said wheel that its lower part dips into a body of liquid, the

wheel having also means additional to the walls of said channel for transferring liquid from such body to the welting'traveling in said channel.

2. A welt moistening machine comprising a tank adapted to contain liquid, and a wheel mounted rotatably with its under portion dipping into the liquid in said tank, said wheel having a peripheral channel adapted to receive a welt strip edgewise and having a series of buckets on its side adapted to lift the liquid as the wheel rotates and passages arranged to conduct the liquid from said buckets into said channel.

3. A wheel for a welt moistening machine having a groove or channel in its periphery adapted to admit a welt edgewise, said wheel having a series of buckets on an outer face thereof and holes passing from the several buckets to the adjacent wall of-said channel to conduct liquid from the buckets to a welt strip passing over the wheel in said channel.

4. liquid applying wheel for a welt n oistening machine having in its periphery the novel characteristics hereinbefore 'de-- a groove or channel shaped to admit a welt strip edgewise, one of the opposite sides of said channel being movable toward and away from the dther and being yieldingly urged 'toward said other; side whereby to insure contact of a welt occupying said channel with both of the opposite walls thereof, one

of the walls of said groove having holes passing through it and the wheel carrying on its outer face buckets communicating with said holes.

5. A liquid applying wheel for a well:

moistening machine havingin its periphery a groove adapted to receive a welt strip edgewise, the walls in the outer part of said 30 groove being divergent from one anotherwhereby to avoid making contact with a contained welt strip, and the inner walls being substantially parallel to one another throughout a given depth, and one, of said walls being movable toward and away from the other and yieldingly urged toward said other wall, whereby to make contact with the welt strip, said wheel being also provided with holes passin through one of the walls of the groove in that part which bears against the welt, and also having on its outer side buckets arranged to lift and discharge liquid into said holes.

6. A welt moistening wheel having at its periphery coaxial parts arranged side by side, one of which is movable toward and away from the other in the axial direction, yielding means urging said relatively movable part toward the other, said parts being formed upon their adjacent faces to provide a groove or channel adapted to admit a welt strip edgewise and formed to bear against the opposite sides of the welt through a part only of its width, the outer part of the groove being widened to avoid contact with the welt strip, one of the aforesaid parts having holes opening into that part of the channel of which the sides make contact with the welt, and buckets on the outer side of said member arranged to lift liquid and deliven it to said holes. 7. A welt moistening wheel having at its periphery coaxial parts arranged side by .welt strip edgewiise and formed to bear against the opposite sides of the welt througha part only of its width, the outer part of the groove being widened to avoid contact, with the welt strip, one of the aforesaid parts having holes 0 ening into that part of the channel of whic the sides make contact with the welt, and buckets on the outer side of said member arranged to lift liquid and deliver itto said holes, the orifices of the holes being widened to form pockets, separated from one another by narrow boundary partitions, adapted to contain liquid in a substantially continuous band while passing in contact with the traveling welt strip.

8. A welt moistening wheel having on its outer side a circular concentric series of buckets and having between its opposite sides a groove or channel formed and arranged to receive a welt strip edgewise, the wheel having holes running from the several buckets and opening in one of'the walls of said channel, said holes being of a size to cause capillary action to'prevent free flow a of the liquid through them except when touched by an object, such as a welt strip, lying across the orifices of the holes.

9. A welt moistening wheel consisting of two parts arranged coaxially side by side and shaped peripherally to provide a groove or channel between themadapted to admit a traveling welt strip edgewise, springs connected with one of said parts and bearing against the other tending to press said parts togetherand to reduce the width of said groove to its'narrowest condition, one of said parts having an axially extending rib and the other having a groove to receive the rib, such rib providing a shouldenwhich forms the bottom of the welt channel, and the outer side of. the groove having a greater diameter than the rib whereby to provide an open space between said bottom and the adj acent side wall of the groove, the said side wall having holes passing through it, and the wheel. part which provides that wall having buckets communicating with saidhole's.

10. A welt moistening wheel having in its periphery a groove or channel arranged and said passages.

adap ed to admit a traveling welt strip edge- I wise, buckets on the outer side of the wheel, holes passing from said buckets to the nearer bounding side wall of the groove, and an annular groove in said side wall between the series of holes and the bottom of the groove.

11. A welt moistening machine comprising a tank adapted to contain liquid, a wheel having on its face a circular series of buckets adapted to dip into such liquid, and having a well-guiding channel with passages leading thereto from the respective buckets, said channel being so arranged with respectto the buckets from which they respectively open that when such buckets are at a low .point with respect to the axis of the wheel,

'the passages are at a high level'with respect to the surface of the liquid in the buckets, and as the buckets rise with rotation of the wheel, the relative height of the,

passages with respect to the liquid surfaces becomes lower, whereby upon stopping of the feed of the welting being moistened, onl a limited part of the liquid in the buckets may pass through such passages, and upon resumption of the feed the remaining liquid in the buckets is enabled to pass through 12. In a welt moistening machine a wheel having. a welt-receiving channel and buckets for receiving and lifting liquid, a means for causing the liquid lifted by the buckets to be gradually delivered into said channel by progressive rotation of the wheel.

, In testimony whereof we have aflixed our signatures.

PERLEY E. BARBOUR.

HARRY LYON.- 

